Discourse of Modernist Heritage and New Ways of Thinking about Socialist Urban Areas in Eastern Europe (original) (raw)
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This paper analyzes how global processes that promote the homogenizing of urban cultural space influence the perception and representation of the past in Central and Eastern European (CEE) cities. Cultural urbanism perceives all urban heritage merely as a scene for creative experiments and new cultural industries. In CEE cities, characterized by a complex and contested history, a special attitude toward the past appears to be one of a typical feature. This situation poses a serious challenge to how global cultural urban processes play out in various regional contexts. It is evident that the dominant view on creative urbanism held within established neoliberal theoretical frameworks is too narrow to explain all its effects for the cities of CEE. How do new cultural projects focusing on the revitalization of urban heritage represent the complex pasts of CEE cities? Are they transforming their experience and emotional resonance? Do they even leave any kind of space for this past? Or, maybe, is this past disappearing in new discourses and symbolic meanings? In this paper, these questions are explored based on case studies showcasing the use of the 1920s and 1960s modernist architectural heritage in CEE cities.
Heritage and the Post-Socialist City: Social and Cultural Perspectives
Colloquia Humanistica
Heritage and the Post-Socialist City: Social and Cultural PerspectivesThe paper is a presentation of the latest volume of Colloquia Humanistica. The leading subject of heritage in the post-socialist city is largely commented on with reference to three major questions: the interplay of city planning and identity issues; symbolic practices and semiotic shifts in urban space; social practices and the functioning of local social networks. Concluding remarks draw attention to the intersection of memory studies and politics, as well as the issue of (dis)continuity, which is crucial for the stability and security of societies on the one hand, and for efficient change on the other.Dědictví a postsocialistické město: sociologická a kulturní perspektivaPříspěvek je prezentací nejnovějšího čísla Colloquia Humanistica. Jeho hlavní téma dědictví v postsocialistických městech je z velké části komentováno s odkazem na tři hlavní otázky týkající se podoby: vztahu mezi městským plánováním a otázkami...
2 Facing Post-War Urban Heritage in Central and Eastern Europe
2017
and Economics (http://bme.hu/) promotes cooperation among Central and Eastern European (CEE) architectural doctoral institutions by building a network for future generations of scholars and academics to facilitate collaboration in their respective fields of urban research. Large-scale ensembles of modernity-results of post-WWII development-pose urban challenges on both sides of the Iron Curtain. DOCONF is a biannual doctoral conference series organized by the Department dedicated to this urban heritage in Central and Eastern Europe dividingthis main theme into sub-topicssuch as mass housing neighborhood, urban fabric and landscape transformation, and urban space for reuse.
Visuele Geschichtskultur, Bonlau Verlag Koln Weimar Wien, 2014
After the colapse of Yugoslavia in early 1990s, antifascist monuments were completely abandoned, and their symbolic meanings suppressed and obliterated. Modes of public commemoration towards post WWII heritage have changed drastically and new ways to publicly deal with the old memorials tended to de-ideologize them, thus trying as well to erase the collective memory of post WWII period as explicit manifestation of the former political system and ideology. During the period between 1990 - 2000 almost the half of the total number of antifascist monuments were destroyed. However, during the recent decade a slow process of antifascist monument renovation started but only around 100 monuments have been restored, i.e. 3% of the total number. However, the existing inventory list of antifascist monuments has been made without clearly defined criteria of valorisation and many of these monuments are still not listed.
Sustainable Regeneration of Urban Built Heritage in Post-Socialist Cultural Context
Acta Tehnica Napocensis: Civil Engineering & Architecture, 2018
Built heritage conservation and sustainable urban regeneration of historic towns are influenced by the specific cultural context affecting built urban environment. For historical cities in Central and Eastern Europe, consequences of the totalitarian regime's urban interventions on the collective mentality and built environment are part of the urban cultural context in which the built heritage evolved and must be preserved. Modern technology, specifically related to reinforced concrete structures and architectural form, has reshaped urban space since the beginning of the century. In Central and Eastern Europe, the influence of the totalitarian regime over the built environment is an important element of the identity of space and urban post-socialist society and a defining component of the specific cultural context that surrounds and influences evolution of built cultural heritage. In these countries, the use of reinforced concrete and modernist architecture during a difficult political period affected the society's perception of modern architecture. Is it possible to redeem the meaning of modernist architecture? How can post-socialist society redesign urban space considering the values and the flaws of the modernist architecture to meet the requirements of sustainable design specific to the preservation of built heritage? Based on the specific post-socialist cultural context, this paper proposes a different approach to the regeneration of the central area of various historic towns in Romania based on the integrated rehabilitation and recovery of the two kernels/cores of the central area-civic centre area and historic centre-through culture-led regeneration. Rezumat Conservarea patrimoniului construit și regenerarea urbană sustenabilă a orașelor istorice sunt influențate de modul in care contextul cultural specific afectează mediul urban construit. In orașele istorice din Europa Centrală și de Est efectele intervențiilor regimului totalitar asupra mediului construit și asupra mentalității colective constituie o componentă a contextului cultural în care s-a dezvoltat și în care trebuie conservat patrimoniul construit.Tehnologia modernă, structuri și forme arhitecturale din beton armat, a modelat spațiul urban încă de la începutul secolului 20. În Europa Centrală și de Est, influența regimului totalitar asupra mediului construit este un element important al identității spațiului și societății post-socialiste și reprezintă o componentă definitorie a contextului cultural specific ce înconjoară și afectează evoluția patrimoniului cultural construit. În aceste țări, folosirea betonului armat și a arhitecturii moderniste în timpul unei perioade politice
His scholarly interests are focused on national and territorial identities, urban studies, political geography, and geopolitics, with particular attention to the Balkans and East-Central Europe. He authored scientific publications in Bulgarian, English, Polish, Russian, and Serbian, including six books. Dr. Mihaylov recently published the collective volume Spatial Conflicts and Divisions in Post-Socialist Cities as an editor. Mikhail Ilchenko works as a researcher at the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe in Leipzig. His studies focus on various aspects of urban transformations in Eastern Europe and social history of architecture, with particular interest in changing perceptions and public attitudes towards the modernist architectural heritage. His articles on post-socialist transformations and modernist urban heritage are published in various journals and edited volumes in English, Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish languages. Featuring up-to-date and insightful analyses and comparative case studies from a plethora of countries, this timely book explores 'ideal' socialist cities and their transformation under new socioeconomic and political conditions after the fall of communism. With contributions from leading scholars in the field, this book prioritises objective scientific knowledge and presents expert rethinking of the historical experience of urban planning in the former socialist countries of Eurasia. It draws on carefully selected examples of iconic cities of socialist modernism, from the post-Soviet space, Central Europe, and the Balkans. The book explores the ongoing transformation of these cities: from uniformed urban environment to chaotic post-modernist planning, from industrialisation to touristification, from deideologisation to making new and still highly contested heritage. Written in an accessible and engaging style, this book will be of interest to students and scholars in urban studies, human geography, sociology, social anthropology, spatial planning, and architectural practice.
2015
Within the ECoC programme, it has been argued that the European dimension is most visible when the candidates reß ect their own history as a part of European history, particularly when hinting at their involvement with the major ideologies of twentieth century, such as National Socialism or Communism. ECoC is about cities re-inventing their identities, re-narrating their history in a European context. But how should ex-communist cities deal with their unwanted past and narrate it in order to Þ t into the European dimension of the project? The focus of this investigation is on three ex-ECOCs from ex-Communist Europe, chosen for several reasons: geographical position (Central, Eastern/Northern European countries, ex-communist past, new membership of the European Union (since 2004), the year of holding the title (the two ECoC selection criteria exist since 2010). Using qualitative content analysis on a set of documents (application books, ofÞ cial web pages and ex-post evaluations) the study will offer an analysis of cities' politics of memory and urban regeneration strategies.
Geographia Polonica, 2019
The 1989 fall of the Iron Curtain marked the beginning of new economic, socio-cultural and political realities for the former socialist states in Central and Eastern Europe. Along with the economic restructuring from statecentralised to market economy, democratisation and liberalisation initiated a transformation of the socialist urban space, which was characterised by the changing role of its iconic landmarks. This conceptual paper examines these post-1989 changes, which range between the removal of these landmarks and their transition into market led iconic and flagship attractions. The paper identifies the changing role of tourism from a topbottom orchestrated to a market led activity, which explains the transformation of some of these landmarks. It introduces a new framework for studying this process by suggesting that iconisation, de-iconisation and re-iconisation processes are interrelated to other strategies and approaches to the transition of the socialist urban landscape into a western market economy. The paper identifies avenues for further research and provides some recommendations for improving the management of similar processes.